Samoa is angling to move its economy into the future - by a full 24 hours.
The island nation will switch to the west side of the International Dateline in order to boost business relations with Australiaand New Zealand, Samoan Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi announced Sunday.
Currently the country of 180,000 people is 21 hours behind Sydney.
With the change scheduled for Dec. 19, Samoa will now move to three hours ahead.
"In doing business with New Zealand and Australia, we're losing out on two working days a week," Malielgaoi said in a statement.
"While it's Friday here, it's Saturday in New Zealand, and when we're at church on Sunday, they're already conducting business [Monday] in Sydney and Brisbane."
Samoa and its neighbor, American Samoa, were on the western side of the International Dateline until an American businessman convinced both to move to the eastern side in 1892 to facilitate trading with Hawaii.
But Malielgaoi says times have changed and Australia has eclipsed the U.S. in importance to the country's economy.
Samoa and American Samoa share a common language and culture, but are separated by 80 miles of Pacific Ocean and the latter's status as a U.S. territory, will now be 24 hours apart.
Many Samoans, however, want to remain firmly rooted in the past.
"The fact that Samoa is the last place on Earth to see the sun of every day is a great marketing point," tour guide Andrew Tiatia told the New Zealand Herald, "and one which I take great pride in telling our visitors. Once that's gone, we're just like the rest of the world."
The island nation will switch to the west side of the International Dateline in order to boost business relations with Australiaand New Zealand, Samoan Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi announced Sunday.
Currently the country of 180,000 people is 21 hours behind Sydney.
With the change scheduled for Dec. 19, Samoa will now move to three hours ahead.
"In doing business with New Zealand and Australia, we're losing out on two working days a week," Malielgaoi said in a statement.
"While it's Friday here, it's Saturday in New Zealand, and when we're at church on Sunday, they're already conducting business [Monday] in Sydney and Brisbane."
Samoa and its neighbor, American Samoa, were on the western side of the International Dateline until an American businessman convinced both to move to the eastern side in 1892 to facilitate trading with Hawaii.
But Malielgaoi says times have changed and Australia has eclipsed the U.S. in importance to the country's economy.
Samoa and American Samoa share a common language and culture, but are separated by 80 miles of Pacific Ocean and the latter's status as a U.S. territory, will now be 24 hours apart.
Many Samoans, however, want to remain firmly rooted in the past.
